Donkey continues to be lovable, and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has one of the funnier character arcs.

Cate Blanchett brings little but an arch toughness to the role of Marion, and, in a highly improbably climactic scene, proves herself a veritable knight. Crowe and Blanchett share a perfunctory romance, with few sparks.

It's a chick flick with a likable premise.

Even within the most formulaic of genres, this Cinderella tale is uncommonly predictable.

The action sequences are fun, though not as exhilarating as in the 2008 original, and the dialogue can be zingy.

Mother and Child is as tangled as the emotions that link parents and children.

Furry Vengeance is a slapstick stinker, easily the worst movie of the year.

This portrait of the soldier as an old man is deeply moving.

Sometimes -- and far too rarely -- a film will hit all the right notes, with sharp, original dialogue, brilliant casting and an absorbing story. So caught up in its spell, you dread seeing the credits roll. Please Give is that movie.

Though they have plenty of lethal weapons at their disposal, the Losers are nowhere near as fun as the '80s action-flick heroes they emulate.

When it comes to comedies about pregnancy, "Knocked Up" and "Baby Mama" delivered more. This sitcom style exercise in planned parenthood is blandly predictable. If it were a cheese, it would be Velveeta.

Bruno Coulais' musical score provides an evocative counterpoint to the often dazzling photography. A scene featuring diving sea birds and whales moving in concert with the rhythm of the waves is stunning.

The faithful will devour it, but everyone else will wonder why it takes a dozen band members (including a horn section), copious shots of Kenny's bulging biceps, and not one, not two, but 3-Ds to give shape to these tunes.

It's irreverently entertaining.

The only death at this funeral was that of a good movie.

Crass materialism and ridiculous marketing ploys are skewered by writer/director Derrick Borte in this uneven cautionary tale that starts off incisively funny, then devolves into preachiness.

The Secret in Their Eyes is that rare police procedural that engages emotions as well as intellect.

The film is an impressive effort, yet often a trying one.

This is the rare screwball comedy that is superbly paced, cleverly plotted and hilarious from start to finish.

The Doors lit rock 'n' roll fires for only 54 months, having formed after Morrison met Manzarek in 1965, when both were UCLA film students. We get a sense of them as bandmates as they hang around backstage or rehearse, garage-band-style.

The Greatest raises compelling questions about how parents continue on after the death of a child.

A cameo by a well-known actor in the final scene suggests there will be a third ride on this familiar marriage go-round.

There's nothing worse than a boring behemoth.

All the obvious elements combine to manipulate the audience into a weepy time at the movies -- again.

For hilarity, characterization and clever structure, "The Hangover" is far superior. Still, there are some laughs in this uneven but good-natured raunchfest.

Who would have thought a fire-breathing monster could be one of the most adorable on-screen critters since Babe?

It could have delved a little deeper to keep us wide-eyed and engaged.

That's what The Bounty Hunter has rustled up -- along with a listless rom-com, a feeble thriller and a supporting cast of clueless characters.

Sitting through this movie is worse than being locked in a room with a continuous loop of "Nip/Tuck" playing on a jumbo screen.

The ensemble cast is strong. At its silliest comic moments it has a sitcom flavor, but the overall effect is gently amusing.

"Who wants to see a movie about a kid who's stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons?" Thanks to an endearing cast of characters and an energetic, if light, comic story, we do.

Its stylish and gritty authenticity is superbly suited to this murder mystery.

Powerfully honest, insightful and poignant.

It's an artistic and authentic evocation of an era but a rather surface-skimming story of the '70s all-girl rock band fronted by Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. If anything, it just makes you want to know more about Jett's back story and Currie's subsequent life.

Zone feels anticlimactic now. It also pales in comparison to Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker," the most powerful film yet made about the Iraq war.

Plausibility aside, the key to making the scenario work is comedy. Much can be forgiven if it delivers enough laughs. That's the main problem here. It's short on clever humor and big on convention and formula.

The contrived insult comedy here feels old, borrowed and blue.

Overall, it's a gently bittersweet and affecting portrait.

When it comes to 3-D visual splendors, give me Wonderland over Pandora any day.

Melodramatic and laden with cop-thriller clichés, the story, set in one of New York's toughest precincts, is contrived and inauthentic -- and also grisly.

The Secret of Kells is a magical adventure unlike anything we've seen on screen before.

Director Kevin Smith's tweets, jokes and sharp commentary after being denied a seat aboard a Southwest Airlines flight because of his girth were a lot more engaging than Cop Out, his new movie.

Familiar B-movie fare, but it's also lively fun and presented with well-paced flair.

A compelling piece of naturalistic filmmaking, claustrophobic and thought-provoking.

Despite its flaws, Shutter Island is worth seeing for the palpably nightmarish and gothic world conceived by Scorsese

Marked by clever twists and turns, the story unfolds at just the right pace. The dialogue -- adapted by Polanski and British writer Robert Harris from Harris' novel The Ghost-- is incisive and interspersed with wit.

Yet it would be wrong, or at least simplistic, to dismiss Celine as a globe-spanning ego trip. Directed by Stephane Laporte, the movie offers something we seldom see anymore from public figures: grandiosity without either apology or arrogance.

What emerges is a banal horror film and a tepid action-adventure.

The film feels as calculatedly sentimental as one of those bland pink candy hearts.

You're more likely to roll your eyes than swoon over this slow-moving and far-fetched love story.

So leaden and obnoxious that it actually makes you long for the John Travolta of "Old Dogs."

Though the experience is nerve-racking and cathartic under Campbell's skilled direction, musings on family and grief and Gibson's intense, but subtle, performance stay with us longest.

A little bit of charm is precisely what this movie has to offer. A small dose is better than none, but you can't help wishing there was more to go around.

Creation is a superbly creative exercise for its star, Paul Bettany, who plays Charles Darwin. But it's a subdued and meandering portrait of the conflicts underlying the development of the theory of evolution.

Harrison Ford has obviously enrolled in the Al Pacino School of Old Man Acting. He yells, sputters and glowers his way through the ultra-ordinary and well-intentioned Extraordinary Measures.

Tooth Fairy will make your teeth ache and your skin crawl.

A didactic and humorless Western, Eli is too laborious for an action film and too brutal to be an inspirational tale.

Chan has more chemistry with the kids than with Valletta, but the story is so insipid that it's likely to only sadden fans of the martial-arts icon and offer little enjoyment to its young audience.

A brilliantly acted and achingly bleak coming-of-age story.

Daybreakers is entertaining, though not quite up to the standards of "28 Days Later."

Where it should be light and graceful, Leap Year trips and thuds.

Youth's screenplay, by Gustin Nash, is generally witty.

An artful examination of a small town and small-mindedness and the potential for full-blown, large-scale evil. But it's strangely bloodless.

Sherlock Holmes has been reimagined with fighting skills as potent as his intellectual acumen.

It's Complicated is vacuous overall, although attractively packaged.

Though rambling and at times self-indulgent, its wit and pageantry, boosted by Heath Ledger's final performance, render it irresistible.

It seems as if no professional actors were hired in the making of this motion picture.

Everything about this fish-out-of-water romp is tired.

The scenes in Pandora -- a planet with an Earth-like environment -- are so breathtaking that the narrative seems almost beside the point.

We'd all like to live in an Italian movie. So says a character in Nine, and it's probably the best line in this musical misfire.

Once you get past the fact that lovely Emily Blunt doesn't look anything like the dour historical pictures of Britain's longest-reigning monarch, The Young Victoria is an appealing and well-crafted, if staid, portrait of a fascinating ruler.

Crazy Heart, based on a 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb, also has great music. Even if you're not a country music fan, the songs, by T Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton, are infectious.

Some books are not meant to be adapted to the big screen. Alice Sebold's best-selling The Lovely Bones falls into that category.

Invictus, which is Latin for "unconquered," gives the poem several meanings in the context of the film. It also applies to Eastwood, who, as one of America's greatest storytellers, finds enthralling tales and fashions them with finesse and an indomitable spirit.

Though the deliberate pace can feel slow to glacial at times, the visuals are gorgeous, and the melancholy mood is exquisitely evoked.

In exploring the complicated nature of family bonds, Brothers is thought-provoking. The wounds inflicted by the cruelty of a troubled parent can prove as painful as battle scars.

Timeliness can be tricky to pull off convincingly in movies. It's tough to capture an era while it's still happening, yet Up in the Air does so brilliantly, with wit and humanity.

It's a syrupy, downbeat film.

Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent.

Wright gives the title character a complexity and emotional shading often missing in this kind of ensemble comedy/drama. Pippa has the feel of a heroine in literature, rather than on the big screen.

While the film is not as resonant as the novel, it is an honorable adaptation, capturing the essence of the bond between father and son.

Emphasizes backing up wishes with hard work. That proviso is a thoughtful message for young moviegoers.

This is not the Travolta of "Pulp Fiction," nor is it the Williams of "One Hour Photo." Though no animals were harmed in the making of Old Dogs, the lead actors were defanged. But like a pair of Labradors, they have a playful rapport.

McKay's performance is a revelation. He nails Welles' imperiousness, charm and vocal cadences, and even bears a strong resemblance to the iconic actor/director. He is thoroughly convincing as Welles and electrifies the screen when he's on it.

The werewolves have it all over the blood-suckers in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. When these oversize, hirsute creatures burst onto the screen, they inject life into a rather inert story.

Has strong performances and stirring football scenes.

It's a maniacal performance, complete with mad gales of laughter and insane bouts of temper. Cage doesn't go over the top, but he teeters darn close.

As a film that pays tribute to vintage '50s Hollywood, Broken Embraces is a visual delight.

The movie is an undeniable visual spectacle, but just as unequivocally a cheesy, ridiculous story.

It's an intriguing match of material and filmmaker. Dahl's distinctive, edgy storytelling seems to fit well with Anderson's idiosyncratic worldview and visuals.

This heart-rending tale also is a mesmerizing one because of several superb performances, particularly those of Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson.

Classic rock enthusiasts will want to stick around through the end credit sequence, which features an array of album covers.

The characters in The Box are like cardboard cutouts: Some have "foolish victim" labeled on them, and others fall into the category of absurdly creepy villain.

Despite its melodramatic moments, remarkable performances drive home the film's inspiring message.

You don't have to believe in far-fetched tales of mysterious beams of light and alien abductions to get caught up in The Fourth Kind.

This Christmas Carol seems like a pale ghost of Dickens' magical Christmas classic.

This is the anti-"Hurt Locker" experience: Where that Iraq War film was absorbing and deadly serious, The Men Who Stare at Goats is irreverent and lighthearted. One only wishes it were a more consistently funny film.

If you didn't know otherwise, you'd swear that Gentlemen Broncos was made by a disaffected high school student – and not a particularly talented one.